Diocesan Heritage Project
Tournafulla Parish

The three counties of Limerick, Cork and Kerry converge at
a point in the parish of Tournafulla/Mountcollins. A plaque has been placed
at the river to mark this point. Within a few miles of the parish are the
villages of Rockchapel, Co. Cork, and Brosna, Co. Kerry.

Tournafulla/Mountcollins parish was formed in 1838 from part
of the parish of Killeedy. Until 1586, Mountcollins had been part of the parish
of Monagea. The present day population of the parish is about 1,500 people.

The Irish for Tournafulla is Tuar na Fola that translates
as the "Animal Enclosure of the Blood". This is in reference to
a battle where blood was spilled. Tournafulla is surrounded by hills to the
north and the Mullaghareirk Mountains to the south. Woods covered most of
Tournafulla until the 17th century.

Mountcollins was formerly called Knockroedermot. The area
used to be called the "Munster Coalfield". A large tract of land
was reclaimed here in the middle of the nineteenth century. There are hills
to the north and south-east and the land is mainly boggy. In the past, there
was little more than a road in Mountcollins and people used to say, "I'm
going to the road" in reference to it. During the famine in Mountcollins,
a number of new roads were laid as part of the relief works that began nationwide
in an effort to alleviate the immense poverty that existed at the time.

Mountcollins got its present name from Fr Luke Collins. Fr
Collins served as priest to both Abbeyfeale and Mountcollins from the 1730s
until his death in 1775. Fr Collins first said mass in a building on a hill
called 'the Mount', which is the site of the present day church. Hence the
name Mountcollins.

The O'Coileans ruled Southwest Limerick from the fourth to
the thirteenth century. The area was called the Tuath of Corca Oíche,
after the clan. The Gaelic lords of the Corca Oíche took the name Ó
Macasa that became anglicised as Mackessy. To the east of Corca Oíche
lay the lands of the Ó Coileáin called Claonghlais. The name
Ó Coileáin was anglicised as Collins.

There used to be a presbytery in Ballycoman where the two
priests of the parish lived. The building is still standing and is now owned
by the O'Sullivan family. In the 1930s the house was sold off together with
the adjoining farm.

The parish records were originally kept in this Old Presbytery.
However, when the new parochial house in Tournafulla was built the transfer
of the records did not go quite as planned. During this process some of the
records were lost. The oldest set of records date back to April 1st 1867.
Back to Top

Churches

The construction of the present day church in Tournafulla
began in 1855. However a shortage of funds meant that the roof was not completed
until 1859. On receiving a loan from the earl of Devon, the church was roofed.
Fr Richard Shanahan said the first mass in the new church on February 1st1859.
Shortly after this mass, Fr Shanahan died and was buried in the site of the
old church in Tournafulla. Outside the church on the right there is a grotto
to Mary. Tournafulla village grew up around the church.

Over the door of the church in Tournafulla there is a small
stained glass window of St Patrick who the church is dedicated to. There is
a picture of St Bernadette on the left-hand side of the nave of the church.
Behind the high altar in the church there is a stained glass window that depicts
(from left to right) St Anthony, the Crucifixion of Jesus and St Patrick.
To the left of the altar there is a statue to the Virgin Mary while on the
right of the altar there is a statue to the Sacred Heart.

Buried within the church is:
Fr P. Corkery
Parish Priest 1869-88
Died 1890

Buried in the grounds of the church are:

Fr John McCarthy
Born 1904
Parish Priest
Died on October 4th 1979.

Fr Richard Shanahan
Parish Priest 1849-59
Died 1859

The church in Mountcollins is dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. It
was built in 1859 and the building was extended during 1954/5. The church
in Mountcollins is close to the Kerry border and indeed some of the churchgoers
here are from Co. Kerry. The church bell was installed in 1992 in memory of
Mrs Johanna Bell, who was a benefactress of the parish. In the porch of the
church there is a water font that was erected by Mountcollins D. S. in 1945.

There are stained glass windows on the left side of the church
of St Pius X, St Joseph and Blessed Oliver Plunkett. On the right hand side
of the church there are stained glass windows to St Anne, St Cecilia and St
Maria Goretti. Over the gallery there are stained glass windows of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart. Various donors presented the stained glass
windows to the church.

There is an altar to St Theresa of Liseux on the left of the
nave. To the left of the main altar there is a statue to Mary and to the right
of the main altar, there is a statue to the Sacred Heart.

Buried in the grounds of the church is:

Daniel F. Murphy
C.C. 1949-1959
P.P. 1979-1990

The previous church in Tournafulla was built in 1814. Although no trace of
the church remains, the site can be entered by gate from a point just beyond
the parochial house. This church had a thatched roof and was built with ash
and stones. This church was part of the old village of Tournafulla. However,
following the Great Flood of 1839 by the river Allaughan, the village moved
to a higher location. The walk to the old church site is over marshy ground
along a path that once served as a mass path. There were two mass paths, one
for each end of the parish. These paths can still be walked in parts. The
old church was called "the Chapel of the Mountain of the Curse".
Westropp referred to this church as Monte Maledictions.

On the site of the church, there is a plain headstone set
on stone. This headstone marks the original burial place of Fr Shanahan. In
1994, his body was exhumed and reburied in the new cemetery behind Tournafulla
church. The people of the parish erected a headstone to his memory over the
new gravesite.Back to Top

Graveyards

There are two graveyards presently in use in the parish of
Tournafulla/Mountcollins. Each of the two graveyards is situated beside one
of the two churches.

The present day cemetery in Tournafulla opened in 1962. Prior
to 1962, most of the people in Tournafulla were buried in one of three places:
Templeglantine, Monagea or Abbeyfeale. There are two priests buried in the
new cemetery, Fr Shanahan and Fr John McCarthy. A grotto has been erected
directly behind the site of Fr Shanahan's grave.

The graveyard in Mountcollins is older than its compatriot
in Tournafulla. The oldest headstone that we came across was in memory of
Eaneas D. Lane from Knockulcare, who died in June 1875.

There is also an old graveyard in the parish. This graveyard
is situated below the site of the old church in Tournafulla. However, there
are no headstones to mark the graves here, only stone markers. The field in
which this graveyard is located is called the "White Field" and
is owned by Dinny Brown.Back to Top

Holy Wells
Tobar an Chrainn well is in Mountcollins on the lands of Mr William Leahy.
In the past, rounds were made at the well. Nowadays the well is covered over
by briars and there are no devotions made there.

According to Danaher, Tobar a' Chrainn well was a small well
in a grove of whitethorn, dedicated to St Ita. Small religious objects were
left here as offerings, rags were left on the bushes and little crosses of
rushes or wild iris blades were dropped into the well. A little girl reputedly
took water from the well in ignorance and tried to boil it. However, the water
would not boil and a little fish was seen in it, so the water and the fish
were returned to the well.Back to Top

GrottoAs stated earlier, there is a grotto behind Fr Shanahan's grave in
Tournafulla graveyard. There is a second grotto in the parish, in Mountcollins.
The grotto is dedicated to Mary.Back to Top

Famous People

St ItaAccording to legend, St Ita once cursed Tournafulla. Her community
had a dairy farm at Seconglass near Mountcollins. One evening, while Ita was
on her way to the farm, the people of Tournafulla set their dogs on her donkeys.
The donkeys ran away and when St Ita caught up with them, one of the donkeys
was lame. She went on to the river Iskule, which is now known as the Skule.
St Ita ascertained the donkey's lameness to be attributable to a thorn in
its hoof. She removed the thorn and turned the point downwards. She planted
it near her convent and it is supposed to have grown into a thorn bush on
which all the thorns grow down.

It is alleged that her footprint, as well as that of the donkey,
was left on some of the rocks located at the river. The donkeys' tracks are
on the rocks close to where the Iskule and Allaughan rivers meet in Upper
Tournafulla. It is said that if one is sick, placing ones feet in the imprints
in the rocks will heal the particular ailment.

Tadhg "Gaelach" O'Suilleabhain The poet Tadhg "Gaelach" O'Suilleabhain was born in Tournafulla
in 1715. Most of his well-known poems were of a religious nature and he wrote
these poems while he was living in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. Tadhg also lived
in East Cork for a while. From about 1760 on, his life changed and he became
a pilgrim and looked for penance for his sins. It was at this time that Tadhg
began to write his religious poems. He died in Waterford Cathedral in 1795
and is buried in Ballylaneen cemetery. After his death, the first edition
of his poetry was published in Limerick.Back to Top

The list of Priests from 1704 to 1836 is compiled from information
gained in Begley's History of the Diocese of Limerick Vol. III page 598. The
remaining years are compiled from the Catholic Directories. Information contained
in a directory of any given year refers to what happened the previous year.
For example if a priest is recorded in the 1954 directory as being in a particular
parish, this would mean that he was actually there in 1953.